Swinging their way through regionals, the girls and boys golf teams had three total qualifiers for sectionals. Senior Malcolm Villanueve and junior Camden Budaun, were the two qualifiers from the boys section, and senior Angeli Daratzis from the girls team competed this Monday, October 3rd, at the IHSA sectionals match. 

Unfortunately, the golf teams did not make it to state, “I sadly did not make the cut, it didn’t go the way I wanted to, I finished strong though and I enjoyed my time out there” Villanueve said. This is Villanueve’s last high school golf season, but he has always seen golf as a hobby, not something he was super serious about. 

For many of the players, golf is something fun, there is no crushing pressure to go professional or dwell over a loss, “Most of the time when I do go to play golf it’s really just for fun, and I just think about having fun on the course.” Daratzi said when asked if she felt any pressure going into sectionals. 

That doesn’t mean the team did not put in the effort or hard work into this season, proving it by making it through regionals, “I am excited for sectionals, this is my first year where I feel like I worked really hard for the game. This year I kind of proved to myself that I deserve to be in sectionals and it wasn’t just my team that carried me,” Budaun said.

The day before regionals Villanueve had his worst round in golf this season, so going into regionals he had to pull himself back up before putting his all into one of the biggest games of the season, “Luckily I got my stuff together for regionals, and got to sectionals,” Villanueve said.

At sectionals though, the boys didn’t have a lot of advantages. They have never played Bridges of Poplar Creek, meaning a new unknown course. Buduan said that the only time he saw it was by looking at pictures on the internet. “It was an insane condition, it’s a course I never played before called Poplar Creek, putting out there was very difficult,” Villanueve said.

Though the teams were unable to qualify for the state they both had very well seasons. The golf season is one of the shortest out of all the athletic teams, only being 7 weeks long. The teams were very close to their teammates, “I think the season went really great, I feel like we all had fun with each other and since we were all so connected and such close friends I feel like we were able to play better,” Daratzis said.

Budaun thinks that his team had the best chemistry compared to the other teams, his only goal was to make sure that they had a good time and a fun season.

“I love the team this year, their funny guys, so I am going to miss it, the guys are just funny,” Villanueve said. He has been on varsity since his sophomore year learning and improving a lot throughout the years. He loves his team and always wants the best for them as their teammate and captain, “There have always been kids older than me, but now that I’m captain and they are all younger than me, I kind of help them out a little bit and they are willing to get better, which is something good and I like to see,” Villanueve said.

The boys and girls golf teams seasons are over for this year, they both had a great season and represented Niles West at the IHSA sectionals.